l. If I stay here I can't
sleep. Anything to keep from thinking about it! Besides, some one
must go and look after Brown!"

"Who'll watch those Greeks?" Fred demanded. "They'd as soon steal as
eat!"

"We'd better all stay here together," said Will, "and take turns
keeping watch till morning." He said it with a straight face, but I
did not think he was in earnest.

"Ach!" exclaimed Schubert. "That is all ganz einfach! You shall have
askaris!"

He turned and shouted an order. A non-commissioned officer went
running back up-street.

"You shall have three askaris to guard your camp. So nothing whatever
shall be stolen! Then come along and make music--seien Sie gemuthlich!
Yah?"

Brown had already gone, jingling money in his pocket. We waited until
the Nubian soldiers came--saw them posted--and then walked up-street
behind the sergeants, Schubert leading us all, and I limping between
Fred and Will. They as good as carried me the last half of the way.

The sergeants marched with the air peculiar to military Germans, of men
who are going to be amused. They said nothing--did not smile--but
strode straight forward, three abreast, swinging their kibokos with a
sort of elephantine sporty air. They were men of all heights and
thicknesses, but each alike impressed me with the Prussian military
mold that leaves a man no imagination of his own, and no virtue, but
only an animal respect for whatever can make to suffer, or appease an
appetite.

The D.O.A.G. proved a mournful enough lounging place in which to spend
convivial evenings. However, it seemed that when the sergeant-major
had decreed amusement the non-commissioned officers' mess overlooked
all trifles in brave determination to obey. They marched in, humming
tunes (each a different one, and nearly all high tenor) and took seats
in a room at the rear of the building with their backs against a
mud-brick wall that was shiny from much rubbing by drill tunics.

Down the center was a narrow table, loaded with drinks of all sorts. A
case of bottled beer occupied the place of pride at one end; as
Schubert had boasted, nothing was lacking that East Africa could show
in the way of imported alcohol. Under the table was an unopened case
of sweet German champagne, and on a little table against one wall were
such things as absinth, chartreuse, peppermint, and benedictine.
Soda-water was slung outside the window in a basket full of wet grass
where the evening bre